Hungary, under the chairmanship of M. Hollosi and S. Antus.Due to the increasing demand for enantiomerically pure products by drug-and food-related industries, as well as a better understanding of the critical role of chirality in various biological processes, during the past 10 -15 years chiroptical spectroscopy has undergone an explosive development on all fronts, from theory to practical applications. As an analytical tool, CD spectroscopy is applied today in the most diverse fields, ranging from exploration of the origin of homochirality of biomolecules to asymmetric catalysis and chiral separation.CD 2003 was dedicated to recent chiroptical techniques including vibrational optical activity (vibrational CD, VCD, and Raman optical activity, ROA), fluorescence, and solid state CD. Special emphasis was given to the theory of chiroptical spectroscopy, to determination of absolute configuration by using the methods of optical rotation, electronic circular dichroism (ECD), vibrational optical activity (VCD and ROA), and computational techniques based on Density Functional Theory. In addition to the Kajtár-Snatzke Memorial Lecture, the program included a series of plenary and keynote lectures, oral and poster presentations, and for the first time, a forum of young scientists. Since CD is inherently linked with molecular chirality, it is therefore appropriate that some of these presentations appear in this journal during 2004.